Page 233 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

Oh no, if Caryan was going to kill them both, I would die first. But he won’t get what he wants. I will not yield. I will not serve on my knees the way he wants me to and watch all my friends die. I’d rather be dead myself.

“Little one! Don’t!”

I slam down a mental wall just as the demon told me to and block his voice out. Then I hurl myself against the warded wall. Back into that labyrinth of wards and spells.

I scream. I know that, somewhere, I’m screaming as the magic starts to take me apart. But then this new magic in me answers. Surges. Something laced with utter darkness, with fangs and talons, so like the ones of that wall. Talons that lash back and teeth that snap and rip and shred… and I let it. Let it run wildly like a monster on the hunt. Somewhere lightning strikes as I let it tear those threads apart, bit by bit by bit. Layer by layer by layer.

Let it rip everything to ribbons.

And suddenly, I can see it—a hole. Blue as the morning sky. Air streaming through. Salty, beautiful air that cools my burning, steaming body. My molten bones and marrow. My ruined soul.

Oblivion.

Cool, soothing oblivion. It feels like flying again.

“Good you’re back,”the demon’s voice greets me. I blink as my senses return slowly.

My clothes are drenched in water, I realize, and I’m shivering. Blair’s silver nails are digging into my shoulders, piercing my leathers to keep me seated on the dragon’s back.

“You made it. I told you I make no mistakes,”he says with no small amount of self-righteousness.

“Don’t be so modest,” I manage to grind out.

“Demons were not born to be modest, my little one.”

“Just so you know, I’m going to call you Aris because there’s no way I’ll ever be able to pronounce your full name,”I say quietly, remembering the way he said it into my mind, full of hisses and snarls. Guttural, foreign sounds only a dragon, or demon, can make.

“Aris? You are aware that I am one of the biggest, deadliest demonsof the nine hells?”he grumbles but over the bond, I can feel that he likes it.

“You might want to hold on on your own,” Blair snarls from behind me. “The smell of your blood is rather distracting.”

She lets go of my shoulders, and I grind my teeth against the wounds her nails have left. Then I dig my nails into Aris’ scales.We made it.The high of that fact swamps my blood. I could cry. All three of us wouldlive. We are free. When I twist around, I find the ivory city still perched on the cliff, the wall we just broke through invisible to the eye.

I turn back to look ahead, just in time to see a volley of magical arrows spearing for us. The demon banks hard, lifting his wing to take the brunt. His bone-shaking roar fills the night as his wing is shredded. I feel the blinding pain through the bond, ripping through me.

I scream.

More arrows come flying.

Arrows made of bristling, lilac magic.

They strike his legs, his neck.

I glance up, only to find a squadron of membrane-winged warriors above us, blotting out the sun.Nefarians.

Then, we’re falling.

74

Riven

Hard, cold wind whips Riven’s black hair, whining through the high peaks of the mountains around them. Slick icy rain batters their skins, their clothes long soaked through, their breaths coming in clouds.

Ronin’s leaning against the stone, a little sheltered from the weather, his amber eyes closed—the witcher’s probably meditating. Riven just stands there and looks into the curtain of relentless rain, glad that Kyrith went in the opposite direction, or he would have to listen to his constant grumbling.

He’s nervous. On edge. There is no denying that he has been since Melody disappeared two days ago. They never found the demon, only eyewitnesses claimed to have seen them flying over Avander, Caryan’s harbor town. A dragon, they whispered.

Abyss, when Riven directed Melody down to their den, he assumed the demons were out hunting and guarding the Fortress and she, astute as she is, would find the one way out through the tunnels where the sacred spring ran through. The underground river would have taken her directly to Niavara. It was the only direct way out of the Fortress. Never had he dreamed Melody would encounter Caryan’s Trochetian horses or he would never have sent her there. They were utterly deadly.

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